燕返死
by Ol'Velsper
Summary: How do you achieve skill on par with Noble Phantasms? Tenacity? Practice? Sheer, unrelenting hate?


Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime are properties of Type-Moon.

* * *

"What's that? Have I heard of anything odd recently? Hmm... well, young Tarou has been acting a bit strange lately. My husband heard him moving about after dark the other night. It's pretty shameful how he's been slacking off..."

"Come to think of it, where have the rest of the children been lately?"

* * *

I am Tarou.

I am the eldest of five siblings. I inherited the land that my parents owned last winter. They were not hardy enough to survive it.

I would have to support my family now.

My back aches as I till the earth, feeling the sun beat down on the back of my neck. A dizziness settles down on my shoulders as I straighten out my back. Straightening up, I glance at the blazing sun in the sky.

Irritation fills me.

Turning away from the intense light in the heavens, I glance across the field. A faint smile comes to my lips as I see my two brothers are hard at work. It's good to see them hard at work, and the pleasure that comes to me at seeing us work as one alleviates a bit of the nausea I'm feeling.

I wipe my brow. My skin is feeling feverish. Sweat continues to pour.

I'm really going to dry out at this rate.

Am I getting sick?

* * *

I turned out to be less of a fool than I thought.

Or that's what my sisters tell me, giggling amongst themselves as Akiko fusses with me. I am currently lying in bed, wracked with shivers.

"You should be happy, Tarou!" They giggled. "Fools never catch a cold, so this means our parents didn't leave this land to a fool."

Saburou, who hadn't yet caught a cold this season, glared at my sisters at this remark.

I still felt like a fool, though. It was the greatest of indignities to be fussed over by Tsubame at this age, I feel. By now I should have a wife of my own to do that, but keeping up on top of the farm hasn't given me enough time.

_I've seen the way that the girls in the village look at my brothers. In the dead of night, I've angrily brought myself to ejaculation five times this last season._

_Why wouldn't the pretty daughter of the brewer look at me?_

When we get the farm ready I should have some time to relax.

For now I have to just bear with it and keep a stiff upper lip. For the sake of the others.

* * *

The food is rather tasteless today. For the sake of my oldest sister I don't point this out. I stay silent as I unhappily eat my dinner.

My fever has finally broken after three days of rest.

I'm glad that I can finally resume work tomorrow morning. While my sisters are wonderful people, they can get grating if I'm around them so long. Always chattering about people I don't know from the village and things that happened in the market.

Even now they're excitedly talking to me about some sort of love scandal. I nod at points in their tale where it feels appropriate to acknowledge it, but otherwise focus myself on eating and recovering my strength. Which is all that this plain tasting fare can really offer me.

"Are you alright, Tarou?" Tsubame wondered.

I froze up.

"So there is a problem." She smugly answered herself. Akiko stopped her insistent gabbing to focus on us.

I choose to say nothing, trying to spite her for surprising me by continuing to eat.

"Don't be such a child." Akiko finally got into the act by beginning to lecture me. "None of us here are children anymore, Tarou. If you're still feeling ill, we can go ahead and check on the doctor in town."

Tsubame giggled.

"Maybe Tarou is just gloomy that he had to be fussed over by his sisters?" I know that she meant it to be a joke, but I suddenly leapt up to my feet. Both of my sisters flinch as they lean away as I throw my bowl to the side, where it loudly clatters.

"Tarou!"

"Just...shut up!" I angrily shout at them. "You're both always prattling on and on about things I don't care about! This food is already tasteless enough as it is, why do you two insist on forcing me to listen to your inane conversation?!"

Akiko looks like I had just struck her. Her eyes glisten with unshed tears as she stares up at me with genuine hurt.

I immediately regretted my words.

_I didn't go far enough._

"Tarou! I don't know what your problem is, but maybe you should lie down until you cool off your head." Tsubame moves to Akiko's side to comfort her while glaring at me.

I weakly shake my head, turning towards the door.

"Wait..."

I ignore Akiko's words as I exit. They're joined very distantly by the shouts of Tsubame as I start running for the tree line. Embarrassingly enough, the two of them were faster sprinters than I.

Yet they didn't catch me before I enter the woods.

Then again, they probably didn't want to deal with me.

So I'll cool my head for now.

* * *

When I was a child, I had always been warned to stay away from the forest.

"Monsters lurked in the dark." Had been what my mother told me. On a more practical level, she also said that we had to spend every waking hour under the sun. A farmer's livelihood depended on daylight hours.

I've always had a lingering attraction to the dark, though. I always would stay awake even after darkness had descended. It was fascinating to see as the darkness gained shaped before my intense gaze.

A featureless void gained hints of definition merely because I stared at it long enough for my eyes to adjust.

I thought I had created a new world.

I wondered if the gods had felt like that when they made everything.

The darkness of the forest brought me no fear. In fact, I was merely emboldened to go further in as I sought to shake away my earlier irritation. I wasn't a fool, though. I knew that despite my keen eyes, there were many, many beasts in the forest that came out to hunt at night.

Beasts with better senses than I.

With that in mind...

I kept an eye on the ground. My pace slowed to a crawl, but I needed something in particular. With a shout of triumph, he eventually knelt down to pick up a long stick from the ground.

It was...

A good six hands in length. The rough bark scratched my hands a bit as I gripped it. A test swing satisfied me, as did the sturdiness of the wood. It would serve well to beat back any animal that tried to attack me.

I began to pull off the leaves that clung to the branch as I continued further into the woods with childlike glee. In a flight of fancy, I decided to name my impromptu weapon. Monohoshi Zao sounds like a good name to me.

* * *

"You were gone all night." Jirou faintly accuses me. The morning sun is peeking over the horizon when I exit the woods. Unlike what fairy tales would have you believe, I did not run across any demons or malevolent forces.

I did stub my toe on an overturned root, though.

"I lost track of time." I awkwardly admit as I continue to till the land along with my brother. I know that he's only helping me with this patch of land because he wanted to talk to me.

Normally we all try to maximize the area we cover each day by working in different areas. This is his way of showing that he wants to talk to me.

"Please let Akiko and Tsubame know at dinner." With that, my brother nods at me and heads back to his side of the farm.

"D-do you want to know where I went?"

He glanced at me briefly, eyes turned down in annoyance.

"You're a grown man, you're business is your own."

Irritation spikes within my heart.

_Blood would splash everywhere if he caught the sharp tip of his tool against the artery. It'd arc everywhere when he pulled the gleaming steel out of the meat._

I licked his lips, smiling a little.

The cry of a bird suddenly shook me out of my troubling thoughts as a brown blur sped past my face. My whole body froze in horror, fingers going numb as I dropped the hoe. A flash of pain rushed through me as the tool banged against my toes.

The sensation of pain was relished as it was something for me to focus on. My body, revolted with the thought I had just been having trembled fearfully.

"I'm going to get water!" I roared, stumbling away in a retreat for now.

* * *

My first thought when I arrived at the well was that someone was going to need to clean this place soon - and it'd default to me. At some point, weeds had slowly conquered the area. Some had begun to start growing up the sides of the well itself.

Disgust filled me as I looked at the area. It had been much cleaner during my parent's day.

Did it hurt them to try and keep appearances going? The place was practically falling apart and he had to go out of his way to get them to do anything! Mother and father didn't have to put up with this, why was I supposed to?!

For a second, I grab my head as an intense pulse of pain races through my skull.

I needed to calm down...

Calm down? I needed to show those bastards what for, that's what I needed to do! Even now our parents were dead and burned up and here we are just jacking around and letting it all break apart and...

_I kick down the front door. My siblings rise up in shock. JIrou's expression shifts to anger as he runs up to me, shouting as a wrathful countenance appears on his face. Akiko retreats in fear as I raise my sickle, chipped and worn down from spending all day weeding the field._

_A tangle hint of fear appears in my brother's eyes. He doesn't even get a chance to raise his hands before him defensively before the scythe descends. My sister screams in the background. Warm blood flies outwards from the initial cut._

_I feel the meat beneath my blade give way in fits as I dig the scythe in deeper.._

_A final look of surprise appears on my brother's face as his body jerks to the side. His eyes grow dark and empty as I lash out with a hand to catch one of my brother's flailing hands as he plummets to the side._

_I find myself jerked forwards by the dead weight. My scythe scraps against bone. At this point, my sister has already run to the back and is trying to pop open a window to escape. I decide to allow her to run for now._

_Warm blood spills out as I jerk my scythe out of my brother's neck. It rolls in between my fingers, making the grip on my scythe slippery. I squat down over my brother's body as I set it down. Even now I refuse to simply let him fall onto the ground in an undignified heap._

_Must be my sentimentality..._

_I wipe my hands on his beige outfit, leaving brownish red stains on the cloth. I clean the handle of my scythe as I raise the man's shirt up, exposing his belly to me. My tongue slides out between my lips, running along the surface as I bring the tip of my tool up against the meat._

_I feel resistance. I counter it by leaning my weight against the tool. An almost electric thrill rushes down my spine and into my loins as I watch the blade slide into his body, rich blood spilling out from the sides of the wound._

_I move my grip on the scythe and begin to work on widening the hole. The heat in my loins surges through me, causing me to shudder with each ripping sound I hear._

_At some point I just discard the scythe all together. I reach into the still warm innards and feel them roll around in my hands, trying to escape from me. But I don't have that! I'll have all of your affection for myself!_

_I bury my head into the gaping hole and wildly gnaw and swallow and let all of my brother pour into my mouth...!_

* * *

Ripping and tearing and devouring and-!

I violently shakes myself out of the delusion.

I go onto my hands and knees and begin to noisily throw up. With each heave of my body, I feel more bile thickly race up my neck. The muscles flex as I pour out all of my disgust. I don't stop until I've completely emptied myself of filth.

My nose wrinkles as the stench hits me.

I stumbled as I crab walk away from the spreading puddle. Once I'm far enough away, I shakily rise to my feet. My body feels like it wants to shut down - even the short walk to the well had practically forced me to collapse. I stumbled forwards, resting my whole body up against the edge of the well. Anxiety briefly returned as I desperately try to keep my balance and avoid tumbling over the side and into the darkness.

After a few moments tersely catching my breath back, I pluck the bucket next to me and lower it into the well. I haul enough for a few mouthfuls of water, spitting out the first mouthful into the dirt to wash the taste of bile out of my mouth. The next few restore my vitality, letting me almost pretend that the vision had just been a bad dream.

I sigh in relief as I set the bucket back on the side of the well. Maybe I could go ahead and lie down for an hour at home. Try and compose myself before returning to the field.

I turn to head back home, but that when I became aware of something that almost caused me to fall into the well once again.

Everything was silent.

My footsteps loudly crunch beneath me, making me wince with each and every one of them. I eye my surroundings, feeling goose pimples rise on my exposed arms and neck when I stare at the shadows too long. My breath is starting to escape me in faint wheezing breaths.

My entire body tenses up when I hear a branch snap to my right.

I rapidly spin to face the thing that had snuck up behind me. I ready myself for a hideous beast with slavering tongues and sharpened fangs. My expression freezes in a look of disbelief as I stare down at the small bird standing before me.

A brown sparrow sings its song up to me. My face twists in disgust as the bird hops twice towards the bile I had thrown up. It smartly buries its beak into the waste, making me gag as it does so twice more. My patience was strained to the point of breaking - I turn away from the display and walk away.

The forest around me fades away to civilization as I approach my farm.

I immediately begin to relax when I see in my home in the distance.

The summer songs of the cicada suddenly cut off as a dark shadow swoops past me from above. Surprised, I raise a hand to shield my eyes as I look above.

Two light brown eyes stare back at me from above as a sparrow flies past me towards my house. I stand frozen, dumbly looking after the animal for a few moments.

Didn't...didn't birds have black eyes?

* * *

My sisters gave me dark looks when I arrived. The house was filled with the heat of food cooking. A quick glance outside showed that the sun was already beginning to sink.

I frankly didn't care about the looks as I went to settle down on my bedding. The thin mat shifted beneath me, the bits of straw rubbing and producing a nice crunching sound.

"You're back awfully early." I could hear the faint accusatory tone in her voice. "For the second time in so few days."

I remained quiet. Akiko simply snorted and went back to her business.

"...are you alright brother?" Tsubame finally asked. Her concerned expression appeared off to my side, leaning over so she could glance down at me.

My eyes found themselves trailing down her slim neck.

_I wonder if I could get her to lean over more._

I coughed and rolled to the side.

_Just a little more and I could look down her-_

"Brot-"

"Go away." I tersely demanded, curling up around myself. "I'm just tired." My voice came out gentler. "I'll be fine by dinner."

_I felt disappointed when I heard her shuffle away._

But I controlled myself. Desperation was rolling throughout my body, but I wasn't going to turn dirty gazes on my own siblings.

That was just _norma_-despicable.

I sighed in exhaustion and disgust. I shifted on my bedding as I turned over. My eyes, feeling my resistance give way, began to lower as my body began to relax as I let myself fall asleep.

Either way, this was going to be the last day I'd allow myself to be like this.

_I swore that I'd fix the problem._

* * *

I should have predicted this, especially after the last few days.

Dinner was a vaguely hostile affair. Both of my brothers were glaring daggers at me for having abandoned them for another day. Akiko was no better. An oppressive aura surrendered her as I listlessly stared at the food in front of me.

I refused to look at Tsubame out of guilt.

Thanks to my mood, the normal conversations in the house are muted. A frown threatens to form on my face when I see my brothers whispering on the side of my eye. _What were they talking about? It isn't like they do anything better - we do all the work._

Tsubame notices my frown and not so discreetly nudges my Jirou.

"So! How is the food, Tarou?" Akiko suddenly spoke up, drawing my gaze away from them. She flinches when I look at her, almost shrinking into herself before my gaze. She probably was reminded of the chewing out that I gave her.

The memory of her tearful face softens my expression. I glance back down to my food and pick some up and calmly take a bite. Just like yesterday, the texture is like ash on my tongue. The inside of my mouth feels gritty the more I chew.

It's all I can do to keep myself from scowling openly.

"It's...good." I mumble, trying to hide my distaste, but I notice her expression darkening as I look away to hide my guilty look. "Very...crumbly?" I briefly looked up, making Akiko's frown grow worse. Crumbly was a bad adjective, it seemed.

I was never a good liar.

My jaw clenches a little as Akiko finally throws her arms upwards. Propriety is cast aside as she begins to shout at me.

"What's _wrong_ with you, Tarou?! This past week you've done nothing but stay at home as much as you can during the day and then vanish at all the hours of the night!"

"That's not true!" The words flow from my mouth before I can think better. "It hasn't been every night!"

She angrily gestured over at Saburou.

"Saburou saw you!" My sister shrieked, eyes narrowing as she shook her hand. "We need you here! With us! We can't have you-"

_-kill them all._

A gasp of pain escapes my lips, lost to my sister's rant. My hands rise up to clutch at the top of my head, feeling it miserably pound between my ears.

"-mother and father just went into the ground and you're now-"

I let out a weak gurgle as I feel my stomach clench. A sigh escapes my lips as the floor beneath me begins to spin.

"-are you even paying att-"

Her words are lost beneath the cry of a sparrow.

_"SHUT UP AND DIE!"_

My legs spasm as I try to push myself to my feet as I snap my head upwards in surprise at the sudden noise. A cry of pain escapes me when my legs, tangling up with my sudden motion flip me and the chair onto the ground, striking my head against the ground. Tsubame and my brothers shoot up from their seats in shock, and even Akiko gapes at me in shock as I let out a scream of pain.

"Blood!" Jirou shouts, growing pale. "Get the bandages!" He shouts over at Saburou and Tsubame.

Lights dance before my eyes as black spots briefly war with the kaleidoscope I'm seeing form before me. One of my hands drunkenly reaches upwards towards the light, but an intense pain stabs me in the back of the head. A moan wetly rips its way out of my mouth as I try to reach for the back of my head, but my motion is arrested by Akiko.

A look of profound worry is on her face as she grips her hands, tears coming to her eyes as she brokenly shakes her head from side to side. Her tears splash onto my cheeks, making me realize how cold I'm suddenly feeling. She's trying to brush my face for some reason, and I find myself relaxing despite the argument just moments ago.

Until I notice something.

Her throat is bulging obscenely even as she continues to brush her hands along my face.

What? No, that...this wasn't right...

She offers me a worried smile as she opens her mouth.

Several red eyes, set in the faces of multitudes of sparrows, glare at me angrily from within her mouth.

I scream.

* * *

Oh god, oh god, oh god.

I shiver on top of my futon later that night, clutching at my blanket like when I was five. The darkness of the late hour doesn't comfort me, the lure of the blackness in front of my uncovered eye banished by the steady and soft chirping I can hear in the room.

My body trembles as I remember how I desperately tried to get away. My siblings were forced to hold me down, shouting at me to compose myself even as they tried to wrap my head wound. Even now, the material feels heavy to me, itchy with the dried blood that had been pouring out from my cracked skull.

...could it be that the blow drove me mad?

No, I'm not mad if I can think that way.

Surely not.

So because I'm not mad, I absolutely, positively have to stop this before I do go mad.

My feet feel leaden as I stumble upwards; I almost trip with how numb my limbs are feeling right now. It's hard seeing in the darkness with one of my eyes bandaged along with the rest of my head. I'll need to chide my siblings tomorrow about how to properly wrap a wound.

I blink my eye as I'm able to discern shapes in the darkness.

Oh...

Multiple sparrows can be seen fluttering in the darkness, causing my teeth to begin to chatter as I follow their silent flight around my home. Goosebumps cover my flesh as I trace one making a lazy perimeter around the room.

Its head turns towards me with a shrill -chirp- as it descends on Akiko's body.

She twitches, but remains still as the sparrow lands on her belly. The animal glances back at me with its frighteningly bright red eyes before turning towards my sister. It hops along her belly, going upwards towards her face as my defenseless sister opens her mouth.

I jerk forwards, but I'm far too late as I see the monster throw itself into her open mouth. It's silence is abandoned as its wings wildly flap in the air, feathers pulling themselves free as the horrid beast wiggles into her mouth. I let out a roar of anger as it vanishes down her gullet, her throat expanding more than a normal human's should. My cry of rage alerts the rest of the foul beasts, but I've reached the kitchen at this point.

My hand lashes out for a knife, which had been left unattended on a cutting board. I hear my siblings begin to shout as they sit up at my scream; making more of the sparrows take flight. However I'm ready for them.

With a shout of rage, I swing at one of the monsters as it flies past me. The knife feels no resistance at all as it swings through the monster, cleaving it in twain with a splash of foul blood as the only sign that it had ever lived. I can hear my siblings scream behind me, and I can only pray to god that they can keep themselves safe until I eliminate the source of this foul haunting.

Akiko jerks awake too late as I throw myself across the rest of the room, slamming my knees into her gut as I descend. There will be no escape for you. I won't allow you to live another day, you damn abomination!

Her hands clawed at my arms, but I answer her feeble attempts at throwing me off with a strike from my knife.

A chorus of birdsong answers me from deep within her throat. Caws of ravens, the mythical song of the bluebird, but primarily the chirping noises from sparrows scream at me as Akiko clutches at the large wound on her right hand. She's trying to bury herself deeper into her covers as she desperately trying to wiggle out beneath me, but I refuse to let it escape.

Regret wells within me as I bring down my knife.

Bloody arcs to the side as I slash across her throat.

Go ahead, chirp, goddamn you. Chirp some more!

The husk of my sister finally gets its dignity back as I liberate her from her possession, but those damned parasites merely try to burrow deeper into her body. The obscene bulge moving from her throat down to her chest to escape my knife.

No.

Not my knife.

Monohoshi Zao!

I'll strike down this menace with my anointed blade!

Monohoshi Zao carves further into the nest of demons. Flesh and blood squish in between my fingers as I hear the screams of my siblings behind me. Unfortunately, their shouts are lost over the din of the angered cries of the birds flying around the room. I'm forced to wildly slap at my head and shoulders to keep from being torn apart by the claws and beaks of the foul abominations. I feel Akiko's blood pour in between my fingers as I continue to cleave into her body.

I almost have it-

Almost-!

I'm suddenly wrenched away. My shout of surprise is met by a furious cawing. I can only stare in shock and dismay as Jirou's face angrily stares back at me. His entire body is covered with thrashing, fluttering birds of all breeds. His powerful grip on my shoulders is too much for me to easily break, and even attempting to do so invites a vicious blow to my face in response.

My world is rocked as I stagger backwards, dropping my faithful Monohoshi Zao. The beast that has taken control of my brother sings harsh birdsong to me. Its human face snarls at me, laying into me over and over again with one strike after another.

While I'm driven back, I can only watch in dismay as more birds come pouring out of the hole I created from Akiko's body. Worse is seeing my two youngest siblings move towards Akiko and clutch at her.

Damn demons conspiring with each other.

I can only watch in regret as more birds begin to land on my sister's corpse - no doubt trying to animate her as they were trying to do with my other siblings. By this point, I've been nearly driven completely out of my home by Jirou.

I can't let these monsters live.

My fists answer the demon. Somehow moving even faster than I even thought was possible, my blow takes both it and me by complete surprise. For a moment I almost think I can see a hint of my brother staring back at me.

Feathers cling to my arm along with gore as I rip my arm out of his stomach.

"T-Tarou..."

My flagging strength is restored with the dying whisper from my brother as he collapses. The moment his body strikes the ground, the birds that had covered nearly the entirety of his body dissolve into black mist. Joyful tears come to my eyes as I see that he's returned to humanity upon death.

Yes, his soul would be moving on.

Fearful chirping cries out, drawing my vision away from my brother's cooling corpse. The pale faces of my youngest siblings stare at me as I raise my bloodied arm up to my face. To show them what had become of their fellow demon, I wipe the blood across my lower mouth.

My lips tingle at the contact with the fluid.

"Make your peace." I snarl at the two demons. "Even if Buddha forgives you, I will not."

Both of them try to run.

They don't get far before I'm on the two of them.

Mid-way through the exorcism, I almost think I hear screams coming from the two demons, but that was silly.

_It was a stupid idea. I just needed to relax now that it was over._

So I closed my eyes.

* * *

A loud crack ends my grisly work. I feel the neck of my younger sister finally snap below my hands. I'm saddened as her expression remains frozen in the same rictus of mortal terror that the rest of my siblings possessed.

It seems that the old wives' tales about possession victims gaining expressions of peace were a lie.

Such terrible expressions don't do justice to my beloved brothers and sisters.

The birds, which had been shrouding the room in a veil of gloom this entire time finally vanished with the death of the final demon. My surprise was profound when I saw the startling light of day shining from the window.

How was this even possible?

I stumbled off Tsubame's body and moved towards the window. The light of the morning sun warmly greets me, but I suddenly feel a foreboding premonition. A shiver runs down my spine as I stare at the sunlight.

Something is wrong.

The light feels like a vast, uncaring predator.

I mustn't let it touch me.

I absolutely can't let it touch me.

If it touches me I'll die, you know?

Die!

I let out a whimper of fear as I back away. It turns into an outright scream as my feet hit something, sending me flying backwards. My breath escapes me in panicked yelps as I wildly look down at what had tripped me.

...what the hell?

My little sister was as naked as the day she was born. Her cool body, already slightly blue at the edges, is stiff beneath my hand as it lands on her bare bosom. Dark bite marks are on her body, randomly marking her.

And in between her legs...

I pull my hand back in shock and disgust as I stumble off my sister's body.

Revulsion fills me as I stumble away from Tsubame's corpse, scrambling to a corner of the kitchen as the golden rays of the sun reveals to me the entirety of what had happened last night. Unable to process it all, I lean back against the back wall of the house, bringing up my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. My eyes jump from one desecrated corpse to another, but something within me refuses to even acknowledge my little sister as I take in the terrible evil that the demons had wrought on my siblings.

The flesh that hasn't been ripped off their bodies looks oddly putrid for some reason. How long had the demons been possessing them if they were at such an advanced state of decomposition? Had I been dealing with pretenders all along?

What a frightening idea.

I glance at Monohoshi Zao, its blade looking rusty as it lay in a pool of dried blood. Seeing as how the sun hadn't yet touch my blade, I hurriedly scurry forwards and grab it by the hilt, cradling the weapon to my chest.

My body shakes, eyes tearing up the enormity of what I had done struck me.

All of my family was dead at my - _no, the demon's hands_.

Those...

Goddamned...

BIRDS!

* * *

The area I am exploring is known by the natives as Nippon. Fortunately, it appears that my ability to gather and process data remains as efficient as before. At least this body of mine isn't completely falling apart.

I reward the young woman that had given me information on my target.

Approximately five pounds of gold would suffice.

Ignoring the bleating of the sheep behind me, I stride out towards the Tsuda farm. If only it was this easy to find him all the time...

By the time I arrive, the moon has begun to rise in the horizon.

A grim smile crosses my lips. At least this would let me have more time to play with him. The moonlight would regenerate his wounds almost as fast as I could cleave him apart. My hands eagerly curl into claws; they can already imagine the feel of his ripped flesh in their grasp.

I finally arrive. The farm is a disaster area, just like the woman from the nearby village had said. I ignore it all when I realize my target isn't present.

A snarl drags itself out of my mouth as I felt like annihilating the farm land.

"Who could this be? Another pretty maiden that's come to share a drink with me beneath the moonlight?" A purring voice calls out to me from behind. Startled, I spin to face the intruder - unable to believe someone had managed to get the drop on me.

Something about the man that's casually standing before me makes my hackles rise. His delicate, almost feminine, features glow beneath the silver light of the moon along with the long hair that was flowing down his back.

"Why are you making such an angry face?" His thin lips curl upwards in a faint smile. "Were you expecting your lover? It's not nice to turn my farm into a haunted site while I'm still alive. Please find another place to play with your games."

I tell him in short statements what I believe about his theory.

"I don't believe it's possible for me to bend that way, madam." Here he smiled again. The paranoia from before returns as he moves closer to me. "But I am quite glad that you don't have a lover..." He raises a hand towards me.

A glint of steel appears from beneath the man's sleeve.

I almost snort, but with a start, I suddenly realize - I can't feel him.

And for the first time in a long time...

I feel a sense of danger.

I throw myself back as three shining lights flash simultaneously into existence where I had been once standing. The human shaped extension of nature flows into another attack as he continues charging at me. With shock dulling my reflexes, one of the man's two knives manages to knick my wrist.

Only once he's scored first blood does the dark haired farmer retreat.

I let out a gasp of outraged shock as the man offers me a smoky smile, hands gripping around two rusty looking knives. He lifts the knife that had tagged me and casually rubs the bloody blade against his lips, painting himself.

"You've almost become corrupted - just like the rest." The man's earlier seductive tone was gone, replaced with the voice of a weary soldier. "I'm sorry, but I must exorcise you, bright maiden."

The man takes up a firm stance, shifting his body to be at the ready.

I now know how he managed to hurt me. The man offers me a sad smile. How utterly ridiculous...

Just like I thought.

"You...you found someone with another way to the Second...?" A bitter laugh escapes from my lips as I clutch at my bleeding wrist. "You dare to sully the Kaleidoscope in this mad quest of yours?"

A far more corrupt aura seemingly looms around the farmer in response to my question.

Of course it would.

This power was only a shard of the true Kaleidoscope...

But the full thing had utterly defeated my predecessor.

That man...

No, I would just have to remove that thing from the world before it grew even more powerful.

My fangs glisten as I hatefully snarl my challenge at the farmer before me, throwing myself at him with all my might.

_"Hiken: Tsubame Gaeshi!"_ The farmer answered her cry with his own challenge.


End file.
